When the LBA caravans come by, the neighborhoods of Nantes smile

"The LBA team is highly motivated and concerned with the environment. I would like to add the volunteering of skills to the financial sponsorship, particularly in connection with the schools served by the school transportation service run by Veolia Transport in the Loire-Atlantique region." 

Didier Gras-Boutteville

The nonprofit Les Badauds Associés was created in 1996 in the non-urban area to develop economically viable projects in the social and outreach economy sector. It promotes access to skills training and a return to employment for publics wishing to rejoin mainstream society and extremely vulnerable persons. Thanks in particular to the subsidies obtained from the local authorities (Region, District, City of Nantes) and private lenders, LBA has set up neighborhood events in socially priority zones, designed to fight exclusion and poverty.

Diversified training and traveling shows

On the credit side for LBA, is the transformation in 2010 of eight used caravans into places for exhibitions and shows. They have become stages for spectacles, entertainment spaces, exhibition areas, technical workshops, restrooms, eateries... provided to the local municipalities and associations in connection with projects for urban renovation, territorial planning and events of their choice. For this purpose, the nonprofit has developed a construction and technical management shop to design them and operate them, enabling 15 back-to-work employees to develop skills in technical fields (welding, joinery, iron work, painting, machine shop, sheet metal, etc.), logistics (safety, transport, handling, personnel safety) and event related fields (communication, entertainment for the business network, promotion of events).

The three pillars of sustainable development in action

The beneficiaries are staffed by professionals and counseled by unpaid volunteers in a personalized itinerary designed in partnership with the competent social institutions and regional companies, to offer the trainees genuine back-to-work opportunities. Committed to sustainable development, the nonprofit is positioned on its three pillars: economy, social and environment, setting up a network for the recovery and recycling of materials used during the renovation and refurbishing of the caravans and the production of events.

The partnership with Nantes Métropole lies at the heart of LBA's project and it is also associated with private foundations. The Veolia Environment Foundation has come alongside LBA to construct a mobile workshop that serves both for technical management during events and a workshop to process recycled materials and raise public awareness on this issue.